Marketing Sales & Advertising - The Business Firm

A single, motivated staff member is an incredible asset to help turn your organisation into a success. An entire staff that is motivated will transform your business, not only into the industry leader, but the industry definer. Millennials already comprise half of the workforce in some countries and are your greatest opportunity (if you understand their motivators) or your greatest threat (if you ignore them). In this episode, host Steven Mario Cavallo talks to Dov Baron, a world expert in authentic leadership about what it takes to motivate ALL your staff and have them commit to the best possible outcome.

Listen to the prime motivators that drive an employee to want to outperform their peers, to give you their very best and to care about their work. Dom tells us in perfect clarity, what those fundamental principles are for Millennials, for Generation X and for Baby Boomers. You will be surprised how different we all are, yet how easy it is to understand how to 'switch on' each of these generation of workers.

This is a must-listen to show for every business owner, every politician, every educator and every social entrepreneur who want to drive large-scale growth and development for the better.

For show notes, visit: www.thebusinessfirm.com.au

Getting the highest possible ROI on your marketing expenditure is critical, especially in the internet marketing age where a business must differentiate itself from every other competitor with the standard WordPress, SquareSpace or Wix website. In this episode, you will learn how to employ every single part of the entire marketing mix to your advantage and in so doing, absolutely ruin your competition by doing all the things that they typically neglect. Host Steven Mario Cavallo, Founder of The Business Firm, an International marketing consultancy based in Australia, shares what very few business owners know...and in fact, what many unqualified 'marketers' even know.

Watch this short video and leapfrog your competitors with innovative, more comprehensive marketing strategy that brings results: more sales, more profits, a stronger brand and much more efficient marketing.

Show notes and further information is available at: www.thebusinessfirm.com.au (see the Podcast page).

Also view our excellent sales and marketing videos on our YouTube Channel.

Learn the ONLY effective method for selling products or services. Understand the psychology of buyer behaviour and what motivates a prospect to buy from you. In this episode, Mr Steven Mario Cavallo teaches you what determines whether somebody buys from you or not so you know in advance, what to tell that person in order that they choose you over your competitors. This tutorial is essential listening for any business owner, sales person, customer service representative or individual that wants to influence a sales outcome in their favour. This high level information is suitable both in B2B or organisational selling; as well as B2C, retail, hospitality or online eCommerce selling contexts too.

For further information and show notes, visit the Podcast page at:

www.thebusinessfirm.com.au

Watch the best sales and marketing videos on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW7VTAWRMc9VJuHLCoqm1QA

To enquire about Sales Training (either live at your premises or delivered by Skype) please contact Steven Mario Cavallo on LinkedIn

Steven Mario Cavallo discusses marketing laws and regulations: what you can and can't do when advertising and selling. He also interviews Dr Patricia Harned CEO of Ethics & Compliance Initiative on corporate ethics and how good regulatory governance and workplace culture leads to profit and success. This episode is for commercial businesses and non-profits wanting to generate leads to sell more or get donations, in a sustainable, PR friendly manner for longterm growth. A must-listen to episode for entrepreneurs, board members and managers and CEOs.

You can also watch our superb marketing & fundraising videos at:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW7VTAWRMc9VJuHLCoqm1QA

Recorded at The Business Firm studios in Adelaide. The Business Firm is a marketing consultancy that provides strategic marketing advice, websites, video & audio production as well as sales training to businesses & non-profits around the world.

See the show notes to this episode at www.thebusinessfirm.com.au

Steven Mario Cavallo interviews John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur On Fire (EO Fire) on mastering productivity, discipline and focus...for incredible results. Also, learn the BEST way to sell products and services using the most effective and natural sales method that exists. Plus learn the correct way to attract sponsors to a non-profit, charity or sporting club. This episode is for people that want to achieve personal growth, build enormous sales to grow their business, and to win sponsorships for their cause or event.

Show notes available from: www.thebusinessfirm.com.au

YouTube Video of the show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW7VTAWRMc9VJuHLCoqm1QA

LINK TO THE SHOW IN iTUNES

https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/business-firm-show-for-decision/id1164625597

LINK TO THE SHOW IN STITCHER

http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-business-firm

LINK TO THE SHOW IN TUNEIN

http://tunein.com/radio/The-Business-Firm—-The-Show-For-Decision-Makers-p920384/

Steven Mario Cavallo interviews Mr John Moody from the Moody Space Centre in Australia, who is establishing a rocket launch site in Queensland that can deliver small satellites into orbit for very little cost. Learn also the most effective way to ATTRACT INVESTORS into your business: who to see, where to find them and how to prepare your presentation in a way that maximises your chances of their investing in your enterprise.

Plus learn the actual mechanics of how markets work: what causes demand, why buyers buy, why prices change, whether your business is better off increasing or decreasing price...and lots more marketing advice.

All this and more is available for immediate, free download in this episode of Marketing Sales & Advertising Excellence by The Business Firm.

Show notes are available by visiting:

www.thebusinessfirm.com.au

Learn how to have MAXIMUM IMPACT ON STAGE OR VIDEO. In this episode Steven Mario Cavallo interviews Sharon Kaibel, renowned communications and presentation coach to some of the most important people in the world. In this excellent interview, Sharon reveals the most effective ways to have your message land with the most powerful impact in people's minds so as to get the response you want from them. The video version of this interview is available for viewing on our YouTube Channel "The Business Firm Presidential Lounge". This episode is especially valuable for business owners and community leaders who direct and influence people. Also in this episode, Steven Mario Cavallo discusses what marketing is, and what it is not. A superb episode packed with value for decision makers, managers and entrepreneurs around the world. For more information, see the show notes at www.thebusinessfirm.com.au

In this episode, Steven Mario Cavallo focuses on using audio in the best way possible for promotional, entertainment or educational purposes. I will discuss how to use different audio vehicles properly so that you can use audio to sell products and services; for marketing a business; for promoting ideas/opinions; for fundraising purposes and to support a crowd funding campaign.

Audio is the most intimate way of engaging with an audience and it is able to do things that no other form of communication can. It has distinct advantages over other forms of media and can give the producer of the messages a great deal of power, when used correctly. I will go through the relative strengths and weaknesses of each form of media and tell you when to use one over the other. The principles outlined here have universal applicability: they are equally relevant to a global company like Sony as they are to a small business; and they also apply as much to the non-profit sector and to government, as they do to your own business. This episode includes an interview with Mr Ben Krueger of Cashflow Podcasting from the U.S. who is a highly respected expert in podcasting. Ben will graciously share with us some of his incredible knowledge on producing business-generating podcasts and insights from the clients he serves around the world.

The biggest advantage that audio has over video or text is that it doesn't require EOS (eyes on screen), which means people typically consume audio while doing other things. If you think of your own habits when listening to podcasts, or audio books, or radio or music etc. you will probably find that most of the time when listening, you are either walking, jogging, cooking, cleaning, at the gym, vacuuming, or working. You don't need to be staring at a screen or a page in order to consume it. This means that as a producer of audio, you enjoy the company of your audience for substantially longer than video producers and text publishers.

So what does this mean to you as a business? It means you have the time to go into more depth with your content. You don't need to reduce your message to a mere sound byte (as is often the case with video) or to dramatic headlines (as is often the case with print). Of course, there are long form versions of both video and print (e.g. documentaries and books), but both of these require a significantly larger commitment on behalf of the audience, to consume. For people to properly consume video and text, they must give the message their full attention – something that is a lot harder to get. Obviously, there are cases where video is the preferred medium, such as where visual elements are required (e.g. to view artwork). And there are cases were text is best, such as where a great deal of technical or reference material must be imparted (e.g. in operations manuals). So to communicate best with your audience, you really need to engage in all three: audio, video and text; in some combination and as appropriate. But audio is a superb platform to form the basis upon which to build an audience that knows, likes and trusts you – and works exceptionally well for business audiences. Business education programmes, like this very podcast you are listening to – work beautifully distributed as serialised audio.

At The Business Firm, we produce video and audio for clients around the world, so we have seen how different ways of using video and audio works for our clients. In every case we manage and every campaign we create, the same benefits to the client keep reappearing every time, so I will share with you what we have learned on how to best use different types of audio in your business so you take advantage of the natural strengths of each. All of the audio forms I mention in this episode are produced in house by The Business Firm and we are experienced in the strategy, production and execution. So you're getting this information straight from the horse's mouth.

Let's begin with radio, as it accounts for the lion's share of spend in respect to advertising. Radio advertising is only appropriate in two circumstances. Because it is a mass media with a high reach that cannot discriminate its targets (i.e. radio waves go to absolutely everybody within the transmitter range), you should only use it if you:

• Have a broad based demand product or service (i.e. it can be bought by all people); and
• You have adequate distribution to cover the transmission area in order to recoup ROI on the number of impressions cast by the reach. Distribution can be either via branches you directly own or widespread distributors that stock your brand

Examples of products and services that fit both these criteria include: McDonalds, British Paints, Villi's pies & pasties and Mortein fly spray. But don't feel that you need to be a multinational brand or part of a chain for you to get ROI on radio advertising. You can still be a local business with a few branches or stockists, and radio can be tremendous for you. This is particularly so if you sell high value goods or services with good margins. Furthermore, you may even have just one sufficiently large store in the metropolitan area and your target market is in fact, the entire city. In this instance, radio can also work. An example of this is IKEA, or a recognised shopping precinct, or a large event such as a major food and wine festival…or even a mainstream political party.

Now, while radio has tremendous reach, the fact it cannot discriminate means there is no way you can target a segment beyond choosing a radio station, or a themed show or a time slot for your ad to appear. And while this can give you some level of segmentation on a few bases, (for example, you can usually get to youth a little easier through a station that plays nothing but new hip-hop music), this still is really poor segmentation in comparison with the super tight targeting other forms of audio promotion can give you – which I'll discuss in a moment. So other than choosing a radio show that is meant for your target market (e.g. if you are a nursery that sells plants you might try and find a gardening show) this inability to target specific audiences in radio is a limitation, so in order to minimise wasted impressions, your offering must have broad appeal. You don't go and advertise your niche product or industry specific B2B service on radio, as that would be a horrendous waste of money. You must be able to be bought by a sizeable chunk of the masses that will listen to each airing.

If your organisation is able to make good use of the reach of this fabulous media, then radio can be a great audio vehicle for your message.

Let us now turn our attention to podcasting, as this has become the most important content marketing platform for many types of businesses today. Firstly though, I would like to make a clear distinction understood here. In what I just described of radio, the promotional value was in the paid advertisement you inserted amongst the radio station's programming. That is, your audio creation was the advertisement itself – the radio commercial. Audio advertising is punchy and often can produce quick results when done properly, but by its very nature as being a paid advertisement, it can only be an expensive, short interjection that interrupts what the listener is really wanting to hear. This means that no matter how creative or relevant, the audience always reserves some suspicion about whatever is being advertised because the advertiser has paid the station in order to force the audience to listen to it. This phenomenon applies to all forms of advertising by the way, but particularly so in the mass media. This doesn't make it bad, by the way; it's just the way it is.

So when discussing podcasting, the most important thing one must understand about it is that while it sounds to the audience almost the same as radio (particularly talk radio) and has ads in it, intros, outros, sound effects etc. – it differs ENORMOUSLY from normal radio in a number of crucial ways.

1. People actively choose to listen to a podcast. They want to hear what is being said. They've actively searched for something that is of genuine interest to them, found your podcast, selected yours from the other search results, and taken the time to download it. All of this is the exact opposite of radio advertising. A radio ad interrupts the content. In podcasting, your message IS the content. This changes the entire paradigm of listener engagement that your business can enjoy from an audience. Therefore, to make the most of this crowd of active listeners across the globe that your podcast attracts, you must change your promotional mindset away from being a pushy 'advertiser', to being a 'content creator'. Thus, podcasting is perhaps the greatest vehicle for content marketing – and amongst the most valuable marketing tools a business has to establish their credentials as an industry leader, an expert…as an authority – not merely an advertiser. Mind you, it is also possible to run advertisements for your business on somebody else's podcasts. In fact, there are many businesses that have grown enormously by doing no other promotion than making audio ads (that are no different to radio ads) and running them on podcasts whose audience matches their target market. And this is possible because of the next crucial differentiator between radio and podcasting:
2. Podcasts are usually very specific and cater directly to a narrow niche, which is impossible to isolate using broadcast radio. Such a tight audience profile allows your business to zero in on a highly segmented group. Whatever your business sells, there is likely a podcast that speaks just to an audience that represents your buyers, which you can advertise on. Or, you can establish your own podcast and speak to them as often as you like, for as long as you like. Just as long as the production quality is high and your content is valuable to that audience, you have the opportunity to build an enormous audience internationally that know, like and trust you; which then forms a listener base that can become customers of your products, or attendees at your events, or vocal brand champions, or students to your courses, or members of your club, or voters for your political party, or donors to your charity etc. etc.
3. Listeners can subscribe to your show. This makes all the difference because it means that the listener doesn't need to commit any mental energy to remember to listen to the show – it automatically shows up on their mobile or computer to listen to at their own leisure. And until it's listened to, it will sit there permanently, waiting for when they're ready to listen in their own time. This way, no episode is forgotten or missed out.
4. Podcasts can be shared by your listeners, thereby building your audience exponentially. Furthermore, if you encourage sharing, this can grow your reach very quickly, all around the world. There is no real way of doing this in radio, but in iTunes or Stitcher or TuneIn; this functionality is baked right into the app.
5. Podcasts can be time shifted, radio can only be consumed at the moment of transmission. The fact that podcasts can be 'stored' as content inventory in iTunes means that you can overcome the instantly perishable nature of radio. The same way that Netflix stores movies for you to watch on demand, so too your audio programme sits on an internet server awaiting to be downloaded and played to the listener at their request. This allows you to build a library of content that people can browse and listen to at any time; unlike a radio itinerary or show guide that only tells you when a show is scheduled to air – for which you need to be ready and waiting to listen to at the time of transmission in order to hear it.
6. An on demand library of podcasts means that it becomes a lot easier for your business to serialise the content. That is, because the audience is able to view your entire content catalogue at once and choose episodes in correct and complete succession, you can create content that builds upon itself; taking your audience through a progression of ideas, promotions, sales pitches, education, philosophies etc. that allows you to cultivate their connection with your brand and for their attitudes to mature in the direction that you take them. And because they can access your entire library, they can't miss any episodes. This is impossible with broadcast radio.
7. The other enormous difference between podcasting and radio is that while radio can have a massive transmission area, particularly if the station is part of a network, it is always limited to the geographical reach of the signal over a terrestrial area. Whereas in podcasting there is no limit in space or time; which means you can grow an international audience very easily and without time zone issues. Most particularly, for podcasts that are in English, you will instantly grow audiences in Australia, England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, South Africa, Canada, the US, New Zealand, India and Northern Ireland without any extra effort or translation. Of course, many people in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa also understand English, hence, you have the ability to capture the largest listener base possible. And if you can add such Chinese, Arabic, Italian, Spanish, French, German and Japanese translations of the same content and you will pretty much cover much of the world's population. All of this reach can be accomplished from podcasting at no extra cost (other than the foreign voice talent) and through the same global channel of iTunes (and other channels such as Stitcher Radio, Google Play etc.). This gives your business enormous power.

Audiobooks are another very popular form of audio production. It probably gives your business the highest authority value of any type of audio product because it establishes you as an author and a credible expert, having been published in a highly refined, traditional vehicle for audio distribution. Also, audiobooks are sold for reasonable money and are therefore treated as a valued purchase; in the same way a person buys a printed book. They have a permanency and prestige to them that podcasts and radio cannot match. Because the buyer perceives it a reference publication, they invest a great deal of belief in the content within an audiobook.

One of the best things about audiobooks is that most businesses can simply repurpose their existing text content for audio. Often, works such as a books, or manuals, or even plays; can be simply read directly into a recording with minimal adaptation. So for almost all businesses that already have various text assets, be they books or blogs or FAQ etc. they have ready-made scripts to turn into audiobooks, which can be sold or given away freely. Depending on the nature of the content, audiobooks allow a business to convey a great deal of emotion and drama to the audience, by way of using voice actors to portray urgency, or comfort, or persuasion, or fear, or intrigue or any other motivating nuance to the listener. Neither radio nor podcasting portray such theatre. In audiobooks I have personally produced for clients, we were able to bring a well-written but dull script to life using accents, sound effects, dramatic pauses and other creative treatments that work only in an audiobook. What this means for your business is the ability to deliver your message with a great deal of impact that no other audio vehicle can achieve.

CDs are obviously best known as the premium format for music publishing. But of course, they also have up until recently, been the preferred method for distributing audiobooks and recordings of lectures/workbooks and even audio newsletters. And while the sheer convenience and low cost of distributing content via electronic channels such as iTunes has largely supplanted CDs, there are still strong reasons why your business may elect to distribute audio via compact disc as opposed to (or in addition to) internet files. The main reason (other than the superior audio quality afforded by CDs) is that the CD is actually a physical product that you must hold in your hands and whose existence you can see with your own eyes and that you must store in a physical location on a real shelf. This contrasts to the intangible nature of mp3 or AAC files that are of course, invisible, bear no mass and have no physical form. And it is this vague, abstract existence of electronic files that can lessen their weight in the mind of your audience because they are often downloaded and stored in an electronic folder with the intention of being consumed at a later date – but, of course, this often never happens and your message is consequently never heard by a large proportion of your targeted audience. Whereas a physical CD presses on the mind of the receiver just because it is materially there and therefore, is perceived as something of tangible value; which increases the likelihood that it will be consumed. This phenomenon is more pronounced with people of Generation X and even Baby Boomers; who grew up at a time when music CDs were horrendously expensive and so consign a high reference value to a compact disc. So if your organisation's target market includes a sizeable proportion of people aged forty and older, then distribution of your audio content via CD (perhaps in addition to the internet distributed audio) may work extremely well for you and can even bestow VIP status to its recipients. Organisations that fall within this category would include life insurance companies, elite membership organisations, music clubs and content that you wish your targets to listen to once then ceremonially pass on to others before returning to you. In projects The Business Firm has been involved with where audio content has been distributed on CD, we have found the cost per unit of creating the actual compact disc has been quite low, but the distribution costs can be quite high, unless the CDs can be shipped at quantity to central locations and consequently distributed from there on an individual basis – such as in the case where we produced a motivational CD and a training programme CD that were each shipped to a large multi-level-marketing company and an industry body respectfully; both of which then posted to their own members. At the end of the day, CDs are the only audio vehicle that your business can use to give off an element of prestige associated with packaging, with personal delivery, with printed materials and with real cover artwork. Quite often, when consulting to clients I have used this tangibility and the physical delivery to our client's advantage by including physical vouchers to stimulate in-store purchase, or product samples to create a consumption experience; and even in one case, a binder that shipped with the first CD that encouraged the purchaser to fulfil the entire collection.

Now, let's move on to another option. Online bookstores such as iBooks and Amazon are of course, platforms from which people purchase eBooks to read (as well as actual audiobooks, as just described). These eBooks are usually read on an iPad or iPhone or a Kindle; and they are very, very popular. Now, depending on the device your eBook is viewed on, and this is definitely the case with all Apple devices; your text-based eBook can actually be consumed as an audio product by the user, via text-to-speech functionality such as Siri. Of course, Siri (or whichever AI your device uses) is not going to discriminate any text when reading, which means it is going to read out the copyright notice, the footnotes, the publisher addresses and phone numbers etc. (unless you specifically exclude these from the text selected for reading). So it won't be as polished nor sound as natural as a proper audiobook read by real voice actors, but it will give the audience a pretty good audio version of text assets you already have. While the text-to-speech function is meant largely for accessibility purposes and for convenience reasons; as businesses we are able to take advantage of this for promotional, communication or educational reasons. Potentially, you could simply copy big chunks of text content you already have, paste it into a new document and have an audio piece of decent length that was super quick to create, for immediate distribution in a tiny, tiny file size. And if you do it so that the only text that appears in the piece is just what needs to be read to the audience, you can have something useful that costs little to no time to prepare – almost instantly. Naturally, you will need to train your audience to actually listen to it, rather than read it; which will entail making sure they know how to evoke Siri or Cortana to read it to them, but it can work well for your business and is a great way to use existing text assets without the commitment of creating a proper audiobook.

Another good method of using audio is to make a short audio clip, which can be a recording of new content or a snippet from a larger piece; and simply distribute it as an mp3 file (under 9Mb) that can be emailed easily. You will also want to encourage your audience to forward the clip to their own network, if your content is promotional in nature. The big advantage of this is that it can be done quickly and there is no learning curve for the listener to be able to consume it – all they need to do is open the mp3 attachment and it will automatically play. And because the recipient receives it as a proper email attachment, they can easily forward it to whomever they like, with all their address book and email addresses ready at their disposal.

Internet radio is a streaming technology that allows any organisation, be it a business, charity, school, group or an individual – to act as an online radio station. This is sometimes referred to as webcasting. Essentially, it is exactly like radio, only broadcast over the web using internet protocol to send signal over wire; rather than using terrestrial transmission towers to send signal wirelessly. The important thing to realise about streaming is that just like radio, the content is delivered in real time only – it is not available on demand like podcasting. This means that if your business wants to use this medium 24 hours a day, you will need a lot of content. Of course, this is a challenge, but at The Business Firm, I have helped our clients get around this challenge by either spreading live content creators around the world in different time zones to share the work; or to create a schedule of pre-recorded content that loops or shuffles; or simply to reduce 'on-air' time to just one of three or two of three shifts in a 24 hour period. The beauty of internet radio is the immediacy of live announcing that you also get with radio, but with the enormous benefit of unbounded geographic reach – something that radio doesn't have. And compared to the cost of running a terrestrial radio station and the associated license fees imposed by governments, internet radio and streaming audio is unbelievably cost effective and can work for your organisation in building connection with your audience on a 'live' basis, where you can talk to people all around the world in real time in a two way discussion; something that is not possible with podcasting.

This leads to another audio technology that is different to all we have already covered, but that also has the incredible power of live, real-time interaction. And while people use it all the time, they probably never see it as the outstanding audio vehicle it is: and that option is, telephony. Now, I am not talking about picking up your mobile or landline and calling an individual; because although that is tremendously powerful, it actually falls within the sales realm, in telemarketing and call centre management, rather than audio. Rather, what I am bringing to the table is the idea of holding a live chat event using something like Skype, which will allow you to engage a group of people at once in an interactive audio session. Now, this is different to a webinar. What I am suggesting is not a one-to-many, town hall type scenario where only you can speak and the audience can only listen and maybe engage using text-based questions; no, this is about having a true multi-party conference call where you have real discussions with a small group, all of which have the ability to speak. Of course, you will need to take control of the discussion and moderate the session, but providing the number of participants is manageable, you can achieve a level of connection that all but equals a personal phone call. Obviously, you need to choose the right thing to use this for, but we have found that this is extremely powerful for our clients by facilitating negotiations or supporting outcomes through the high-level connection it provides with their audience. One caution here is that you must recognise that if you want to 'sell' at mass or if your message is complex to explain, you really should use a webinar that includes audio and video to help impart the information to a large number at once. This type of audio telephony is best used for building connection and community or for technical discussion within a small group.

YouTube is of course, an enormous platform that has a large amount of eyeballs at any one time. Therefore, you can capture a slice of those billions of eyeballs, driving traffic to consume your audio content. You can see quite a number of podcasters that post episodes to their YouTube channel. So while your business may find that you can get an unusually big number of hits to those audio files, because there is no video component, very few of those viewers actually listen beyond the first little bit of the audio. They are after all, eyeballs looking for video. So short of creating videos (which is an entirely different kettle of fish and much, much more work), we advise our clients to instead simply augment their audio files with some stills to help maintain engagement with their YouTube audience and get more of their audio message heard. This is of course, an extra step, but we have found it is usually worth the effort to keep listeners for longer. One other thing to bear in mind with YouTube is that unlike podcasts or Spotify, listeners are usually unlikely to allow a YouTube video (even if it only has audio) to continually play in the background while they are doing other tasks, like they would with a radio. This is because it is a video feed that requires a great deal more bandwidth to run than audio only. This reluctance is of course, compounded on a mobile as people try to preserve their data allowance.

Apps that play audio can be a very clean and direct way of delivering your content to audiences, because they connect the listener directly with your content, sidestepping all the competing noise from other stations, podcasts, channels etc. that share the same major distribution platforms with your content. For example, on iTunes or Spotify or Apple Music or Google Music there is no way of eliminating all the others. But, with your own app, you can achieve this so your message can enjoy perfect cut through. The flipside to sidestepping all that competing noise is that you also miss out on all that traffic! In a world saturated with audio offerings, discoverability is really, really hard to get and so unless you already have a large audience by way of a membership database (i.e. perhaps you are a university, or a local council, or an insurer, or a large employer or a global brand like Mazda) you will probably want to use the big platforms as well as your own app. Mind you, having your own app is not very expensive and some podcast file hosting services such as Libsyn can create a customised app for your existing podcast for very little cost, which then gives your audio content an opportunity to also be found in the App Store by people who may not normally look for podcasts or other audio-only content.

Of course, there are many other social media options such as FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter in which you can find ways to use audio in ways that support your business. Just bear in mind that like YouTube, audio embedded in video feeds can encounter that same bandwidth and data allowance problems when being consumed by listeners.

Finally, I will end this discussion with one of the most useful audio vehicles of all…on-hold audio. Most organisations experience significant phone traffic that usually comprises either existing customers/members; or very warm people far into the sales funnel who may have already visited your website and watched your product videos and are calling to speak to a sales person – or perhaps they are customers that are waiting for technical assistance or even ringing to complain. So on-hold audio is not going to be for lead-generation, but it is going to be useful for cross-selling, for introducing new products or services, for reminding call waiters to visit technical information online to help reduce call volume, or for calming down angry customers before they speak to your complaints staff. In every instance where The Business Firm has created on-hold audio for our clients, we have first analysed call traffic to segment the type of calls and then created specific content that suits each type of audience. We insert forks into the PBX system accordingly and this results in significant benefits for our clients. Using on-hold audio well should in my opinion, be an integral part of your overall audio strategy.

So we've covered most of the different ways of using audio in your organisation. You will need to assess which of these best supports your objectives and complements your overall marketing strategy.

Now, it is time for us to stand up and have a stretch, and follow me into the lift of Success Tower, where waiting for us, up in the Presidential Lounge and no doubt being pampered by James, is none other than the highly regarded Ben Krueger – one of the world's most sought after podcasting experts who will help us understand in great detail, how podcasting can help us with our organisational goals. Come with me now…

In this episode, we hear from Mr Ben Krueger from Cashflow Podcasting. Ben provides podcast services for busy thought leaders, helping businesses grow their audience, authority and customer base with done-for-you podcasting services. He helps people either start a podcast from scratch or can edit existing podcasts to improve them before publication. He has a great deal of information on his website about many aspects of podcasting production, from equipment to scripting to editing to software to promotion and much more. I highly encourage you to visit Ben's website: www.cashflowpodcasting.com and see some of the incredible resources he has there and consider using him to help you with developing a new podcast or to improve your existing one.

Today's question comes from Elif from Turkey who is the owner of a business that operates short cruises in Istanbul. She has three modern boats and a very old wooden one and wants to know how she can increase the number of passengers she gets, particularly in autumn and winter, when there are fewer tourists. Her summers are very busy, often resulting in having to turn away people, but she struggles outside of the peak season, having to put one of her modern boats and her wooden boat out of service during the quietest months. She appreciates any help I can offer.

Well Elif, this is a typical situation faced by all owners of businesses that experience seasonal demand. A lot of hotels, restaurants, sports and leisure businesses and gyms deal with the same challenge. But all of these have a further restriction because they are very limited in the value they can provide; that is, a hotel can only offer hospitality, not sport. A gym can only offer exercise equipment & training, not food. A restaurant can only offer food, not accommodation etc. However, your boats are able to do all of this, plus offer the utility of transport, plus the benefit of incredible views and more. Let's discuss the first issue of low tourism demand during autumn and winter as this concerns me most.

Look, even if you make big dollars during the peak season, I hate the idea that more than a third of your investment is sitting idle for a significant part of the year – it needs to be earning returns somehow. Even if passenger demand is low, it is still after all, a space that can be rented out. The sort of things that would earn the best rental returns would be highly experiential offerings that can make best use of the marine ambience. Given you already have chairs, tables, bar, kitchen and so forth on the vessel; you essentially have a ready-made floating facility that can host certain events. Now, rather than getting into event management directly, I would consider finding third parties that would like to hold events in your floating space. You can achieve this by finding an actual event planning company that will then go out and find clients that want to rent the space; or by approaching potential bookers directly – or a combination of both might be necessary to fill up total capacity. Of course, the space can be rented as a stationary floating barge, or as cruising vessel that is captained by charter. So while you might have hotels that are competing with you on renting out their space, very few of them will have the views or wow factor of your boats and none of them will be able to move. If you imagine a 24 hour day, you might view each hour or block of hours as being of interest to different users. For example, a sunrise yoga or tai chi group, followed by a business breakfast event, followed by Mums having coffee after dropping kids off at school, followed by a mid morning community group meeting or story time for preschool children, followed by a lunch event or even open to the public lunch trade where external operators cater to the lunch guests as their own part-time business. Lunch trade can then be followed by a period for corporate workshops, followed by a personal trainer doing gym classes, followed by after-work drinks and networking, following by a dining experience as part of a joint venture with a museum where they take groups on a historical journey of Constantinople while you cruise the water and give people views of the ancient Roman and the Ottoman buildings or on weekends sublet to a wedding planner to bring in wedding parties.

Again, these are all business development ideas for you Elif, but the idea would be to get external parties to organise and hold these activities, not for you to do them directly. Once you have put the effort into building a cohort of event organisers, and assuming each event is viable for the organiser, you might get years of ongoing space rental for relatively little effort and in the process, introduce new people to your boat and your normal services. So that will help generate return on your stationary boats in the off-season. But in addition of course, there is no reason why you should not put effort into building tourist revenue on your working boats even during the autumn and winter periods. Now, rather than use discounting and eroding margins, try instead to use that money to partner with hotels where a cruise is included in the hotel's room package, or with coach operators to include a cruise as part of their bus tours, or with schools to hold camps on the boats. Just make sure that any money you spend generates returns to you directly, rather than to your industry as a whole. So any partnerships with other providers must give you exclusivity, so they cannot divert their customers to other vessel operators.

Subsequently Elif, you will find that lots of different types of business in Istanbul that live on tourism face the same seasonal demand problems, in which case you could create a total holiday experience that comprises a hotel, a cluster of restaurants, a theme park, a coach line, a number of historical landmark operators, a tour guide, so on and so forth, plus yourself; and form a structure whereby collectively, you can sell complete packages to people, in which each plays their part. Once formed, this can become a safer way of investing in acquisition from foreign markets that are within close proximity to Istanbul, such as Greece, Italy & Bulgaria, where flights are not necessary and your coach liner partner can easily provide all the transport into and out of Turkey. It is then worthwhile getting tourists carrying Euros directly from their home markets.

Finally, in respect to the peak season, if you are indeed having to turn down passengers this is indicating that you are beyond your capacity – which is a good thing – which means that you should increase your prices a bit to make the most if that excess quantity demanded. You should also be trying to capture as much discretionary spending while those passengers are on board your vessel, by offering things that go beyond the typical food and drink items. You could try and sell personal electronics such as headphones, portable battery power packs, DVDs, cameras and associated accessories such as leather iPad and iPhone cases, stylish bags and some souvenir items relating to Istanbul. Notice these are all relatively high value, non-perishable goods. All of this will not only add to your revenue, but will improve margins as these type of items provide more profit than lemonade or snacks do.

So I hope this has been helpful to you Elif, as a starting point to think of new ways of improving sales in your business. For really good information on how to develop your creativity so you can generate more profit-building ideas, have a listen to episode 106 of The Business Firm podcast where I interview the great Michael Gelb, who is a world authority on creativity and wrote the book How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci. In that interview, he reveals that 7 principles anybody can use to think like the greatest genius the world has ever seen…the great Leonardo. I also go through many techniques for building creativity in business, which you will find useful in your organisation. So that's episode 105 of the podcast, via iTunes or Stitcher Radio.

I would like to take a moment now to thank one of my listeners, Cia00, for their 5 star review of The Business Firm podcast in iTunes. Cia00 wrote:

"This is a must-have podcast for the up and coming entrepreneur, as well as the billionaire. Everyone can learn something new and The Business Firm does just that. It provides you with the ideas, knowledge, systems and marketing to take your business to the next level, as well as your personal life. It is the complete package".

I sincerely appreciate the rating you gave Cia00 and the fabulous feedback. Of course, there is no way of responding to you directly through iTunes, but I can acknowledge you on air.

So dear listeners, if you find the content published in this podcast valuable, it would be super to get a review from you as it provides myself and the team a great deal of encouragement and shows appreciation for the time and personal effort we put in to bringing you high quality content each week. In fact, I personally get so motivated by this encouraging feedback that I have actually put on our website a small token of my appreciation for people that leave a review in iTunes – have a look at the podcast page on the website thebusinessfirm.com.au to see what that is.

Listen to Episode 106 to hear all of Steven's advice to this question. You can listen to this and all other episodes:

This is the favourite part of the show for host Steven Cavallo because he gets to directly help real people with an actual problem they are having in the areas of business development, marketing, sales or fundraising. Steven features one of the recorded questions sent in by listeners, and plays back that recording on air, along with his commentary. To submit a question, please record your question as an mp3 (maximum file size 10Mb) that is no longer than 60 seconds and email it to: [email protected]

While we can address your issue and provide some valuable insight for questions featured; of course, we can only go into brief detail in the minutes available in the podcast, so we encourage listeners who want more formal advice (regardless of whether their question is featured) to outline their specific problem/opportunity and email it directly to [email protected] and you will get a reply within 24 hours.

Today's question comes from Elif from Turkey who is the owner of a business that operates short cruises in Istanbul. She has three modern boats and a very old wooden one and wants to know how she can increase the number of passengers she gets, particularly in autumn and winter, when there are fewer tourists. Her summers are very busy, often resulting in having to turn away people, but she struggles outside of the peak season, having to put one of her modern boats and her wooden boat out of service during the quietest months. She appreciates any help I can offer.

Well Elif, this is a typical situation faced by all owners of businesses that experience seasonal demand. A lot of hotels, restaurants, sports and leisure businesses and gyms deal with the same challenge. But all of these have a further restriction because they are very limited in the value they can provide; that is, a hotel can only offer hospitality, not sport. A gym can only offer exercise equipment & training, not food. A restaurant can only offer food, not accommodation etc. However, your boats are able to do all of this, plus offer the utility of transport, plus the benefit of incredible views and more. Let's discuss the first issue of low tourism demand during autumn and winter as this concerns me most.

Look, even if you make big dollars during the peak season, I hate the idea that more than a third of your investment is sitting idle for a significant part of the year – it needs to be earning returns somehow. Even if passenger demand is low, it is still after all, a space that can be rented out. The sort of things that would earn the best rental returns would be highly experiential offerings that can make best use of the marine ambience. Given you already have chairs, tables, bar, kitchen and so forth on the vessel; you essentially have a ready-made floating facility that can host certain events. Now, rather than getting into event management directly, I would consider finding third parties that would like to hold events in your floating space. You can achieve this by finding an actual event planning company that will then go out and find clients that want to rent the space; or by approaching potential bookers directly – or a combination of both might be necessary to fill up total capacity. Of course, the space can be rented as a stationary floating barge, or as cruising vessel that is captained by charter. So while you might have hotels that are competing with you on renting out their space, very few of them will have the views or wow factor of your boats and none of them will be able to move. If you imagine a 24 hour day, you might view each hour or block of hours as being of interest to different users. For example, a sunrise yoga or tai chi group, followed by a business breakfast event, followed by Mums having coffee after dropping kids off at school, followed by a mid morning community group meeting or story time for preschool children, followed by a lunch event or even open to the public lunch trade where external operators cater to the lunch guests as their own part-time business. Lunch trade can then be followed by a period for corporate workshops, followed by a personal trainer doing gym classes, followed by after-work drinks and networking, following by a dining experience as part of a joint venture with a museum where they take groups on a historical journey of Constantinople while you cruise the water and give people views of the ancient Roman and the Ottoman buildings or on weekends sublet to a wedding planner to bring in wedding parties.

Again, these are all business development ideas for you Elif, but the idea would be to get external parties to organise and hold these activities, not for you to do them directly. Once you have put the effort into building a cohort of event organisers, and assuming each event is viable for the organiser, you might get years of ongoing space rental for relatively little effort and in the process, introduce new people to your boat and your normal services. So that will help generate return on your stationary boats in the off-season. But in addition of course, there is no reason why you should not put effort into building tourist revenue on your working boats even during the autumn and winter periods. Now, rather than use discounting and eroding margins, try instead to use that money to partner with hotels where a cruise is included in the hotel's room package, or with coach operators to include a cruise as part of their bus tours, or with schools to hold camps on the boats. Just make sure that any money you spend generates returns to you directly, rather than to your industry as a whole. So any partnerships with other providers must give you exclusivity, so they cannot divert their customers to other vessel operators.

Subsequently Elif, you will find that lots of different types of business in Istanbul that live on tourism face the same seasonal demand problems, in which case you could create a total holiday experience that comprises a hotel, a cluster of restaurants, a theme park, a coach line, a number of historical landmark operators, a tour guide, so on and so forth, plus yourself; and form a structure whereby collectively, you can sell complete packages to people, in which each plays their part. Once formed, this can become a safer way of investing in acquisition from foreign markets that are within close proximity to Istanbul, such as Greece, Italy & Bulgaria, where flights are not necessary and your coach liner partner can easily provide all the transport into and out of Turkey. It is then worthwhile getting tourists carrying Euros directly from their home markets.

Finally, in respect to the peak season, if you are indeed having to turn down passengers this is indicating that you are beyond your capacity – which is a good thing – which means that you should increase your prices a bit to make the most if that excess quantity demanded. You should also be trying to capture as much discretionary spending while those passengers are on board your vessel, by offering things that go beyond the typical food and drink items. You could try and sell personal electronics such as headphones, portable battery power packs, DVDs, cameras and associated accessories such as leather iPad and iPhone cases, stylish bags and some souvenir items relating to Istanbul. Notice these are all relatively high value, non-perishable goods. All of this will not only add to your revenue, but will improve margins as these type of items provide more profit than lemonade or snacks do.

So I hope this has been helpful to you Elif, as a starting point to think of new ways of improving sales in your business. For really good information on how to develop your creativity so you can generate more profit-building ideas, have a listen to episode 106 of The Business Firm podcast where I interview the great Michael Gelb, who is a world authority on creativity and wrote the book How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci. In that interview, he reveals that 7 principles anybody can use to think like the greatest genius the world has ever seen…the great Leonardo. I also go through many techniques for building creativity in business, which you will find useful in your organisation. So that's episode 105 of the podcast, via iTunes or Stitcher Radio.

I would like to take a moment now to thank one of my listeners, Cia00, for their 5 star review of The Business Firm podcast in iTunes. Cia00 wrote:

"This is a must-have podcast for the up and coming entrepreneur, as well as the billionaire. Everyone can learn something new and The Business Firm does just that. It provides you with the ideas, knowledge, systems and marketing to take your business to the next level, as well as your personal life. It is the complete package".

I sincerely appreciate the rating you gave Cia00 and the fabulous feedback. Of course, there is no way of responding to you directly through iTunes, but I can acknowledge you on air.

So dear listeners, if you find the content published in this podcast valuable, it would be super to get a review from you as it provides myself and the team a great deal of encouragement and shows appreciation for the time and personal effort we put in to bringing you high quality content each week. In fact, I personally get so motivated by this encouraging feedback that I have actually put on our website a small token of my appreciation for people that leave a review in iTunes – have a look at the podcast page on the website thebusinessfirm.com.au to see what that is.

Listen to Episode 106 to hear all of Steven's advice to this question. You can listen to this and all other episodes:

This is the favourite part of the show for host Steven Cavallo because he gets to directly help real people with an actual problem they are having in the areas of business development, marketing, sales or fundraising. Steven features one of the recorded questions sent in by listeners, and plays back that recording on air, along with his commentary. To submit a question, please record your question as an mp3 (maximum file size 10Mb) that is no longer than 60 seconds and email it to: [email protected]

While we can address your issue and provide some valuable insight for questions featured; of course, we can only go into brief detail in the minutes available in the podcast, so we encourage listeners who want more formal advice (regardless of whether their question is featured) to outline their specific problem/opportunity and email it directly to [email protected] and you will get a reply within 24 hours.

Copyright © The Business Firm 2016

All Rights Reserved

Mr Steven Mario Cavallo

[email protected]

PO Box 7407

West Lakes SA 5021

Australia

Phone +61 8 8121 5711

www.thebusinessfirm.com.au

In this episode, Steven Mario Cavallo explores the power of creativity as the source that has propelled humanity from the cave…to the stars. It is the cradle of all invention; the wonderment that moves the child's hand to paint the pictures in their imagination; and it is the mind force from which emerges the greatest innovations in our world. From the improvised lullaby sung by a new mother to her child, to the convenience of driving across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, to the architectural marvels of ancient Rome; and to the ingenuity of the iPhone you hold in your hand…all of these things…in fact, all of everything…comes from creativity.

As a subject, creativity has been studied for millennia by philosophers, politicians, artists, musicians and orators. In the modern context and as the driver of the most lucrative commercial achievements in the business world, creativity has been intensively researched by economists, marketers, technologists, cognitive scientists, educators, psychologists and manufacturers. It is the recognised catalyst for attaining market power, enormous wealth and has the capacity to transform an economy. Today on the international stage we see some of the greatest growth coming from economies that have invested in developing creative thinking across industries and across society, in schools, in universities and in the workforce. The push for people to learn 'how to be creative' is pursued vigorously now by all types of organisations...and if you do not already have a formal programme to cultivate creativity and innovative thinking in your own business, then you are putting yourself and all the families that depend on your leadership, at risk. The originality and individuality intrinsic in creativity affords a competitive advantage that is not as easily copied by other firms in your industry. Your competitors might also develop their creativity, but they won't have your particular creative abilities. The world is replete with genius, but in any particular industry the most creative, the most visionary, and the one that offers a true difference that is meaningful to its buyers...this firm often becomes the industry leader and can enjoy extraordinary profitability while the rest of the firms are left to compete on price alone as their sameness reduces their products to mere commodities. Case in point: Apple.

Of course, there are a number of amazing programmes and methodologies in the world today that help an organisation develop its creative thinking capacity. Highly credible systems exist whereby frameworks are given for the creative thinking process. Some techniques are for use in groups and others on an individual basis. Some focus on idea generation, others on divergent thinking, some on reframing paradigms and a great number use randomness or aleatoricism to provide unforseen variety.

Improvisation, which is at the core of jazz musicians, is a natural way to create massive and unique inventiveness that yields a slightly different ''product" with each production. But business executives often lack the creative brilliance of a jazz musician so instead prefer to use predefined, creative thinking systems that provide an existing structure they can use internally that is easy to follow and leads people through a process. Some of the best-known creative thinking frameworks are from Dr Edward DeBono (Six Thinking Hats system and the Lateral Thinking process); or the Brainstorming method (by Aex F Osborn); as well as the SWOT analysis (from the Stanford Research Institute) and Dr Stephen Covey's 'The Third Alternative'. All of these are powerful tools that can truly transform businesses and indeed, the outlook for a country. And some of these have found their way into mainstream educational curricula and are preparing an entire generation to naturally follow a creative thought process. In fact, in the private school my kids go to, they use the Six Thinking Hats as an integral part of their everyday learning to instil a multi-perspective approach to problem solving. Mmh…perhaps this explains why our buys are SO good at annoying their Mum and Dad on so many levels!

Then of course, as a business owner there are less formal ways to tap into the creative. I personally find that simple things like a walk in nature – along the beach where I live; or doing some exercise while listening to an inspirational podcast; or my putting half an hour aside to play the piano; or even holding my little daughter while she watches cartoons; or perhaps most effectively...doing some meditation to quieten the mind and allow the flow of creative ideas to rush into my head...all of these serve me greatly in generating creative thinking...which ultimately leaves me with a number of potential commercial and personal projects to consider. Of course, once you generate new ideas you then need to assess them in respect to their viability and then finally, to do something with them. This obviously leads into the product development process, which I've prevously covered in depth, so I won't discuss in this episode, but clearly, is of vital importance to an organisation's commercial survival – and is in fact, the other side of the coin to creativity. I strongly encourage you to listen to episode 101 of this podcast: Disruptive Innovation, Product Development, 10x Thinking with Dr Michael Hewittson-Gleeson from the School of Thinking, the father of 10x Thinking and a major teacher to Larry Page from Google – it is definitely, definitely worth listening to as it goes into great detail on how your business can profit from innovative, creative thinking and excellence in product development, which can give your business enormous market gains. That's episode 101 of The Business Firm podcast in iTunes or on Stitcher Radio and as always, detailed show notes are available at www.thebusinessfirm.com.au (on the podcast page).

I would like to give you the opportunity now to actually do an exercise in creative thinking – right here, right now in this podcast. If you are driving while you are listening to this, pause the podcast and pull over safely before attempting this – or come back to this again later. If you are doing exercise, perhaps slow down or stop entirely for a couple of minutes while you do this. You will need a pen and paper (or an iPhone or iPad) to write on. It's important to give yourself permission to simply sit down comfortably, gently close your eyes and take five slow breaths in and out…and just relax for a few seconds. Now give yourself a big smile. Hold the smile and count to ten in your head then let the smile go. You are now ready. Open your eyes and look forward, softening your focus into the middle distance.

First, a little test. While looking into the middle distance, take your finger, place it between your eyes and draw the letter Q on your forehead. There are only two ways you can do this: the tail of the Q can point either to your right eye or your left eye. Which eye did your Q tail point to? Your left or your right? There is a very big difference in the type of person whose Q points to the right and to type of person whose Q points to the left. I will direct you to the answer for this, a little later in this episode. Just remember which way yours pointed.

Now, remaining in this relaxed state, we will try one creative thinking exercise. Now, I must warn you, almost no managers ever solve this, so you may find this difficult. It's a set of questions; here they are:

• How do you put a giraffe into a fridge?
• How do you put an elephant into a fridge?
• The King of the Jungle is holding a meeting for all of the animals. One of them is not there. Which one?
• You are standing at the bank of a crocodile infested river and have to get to the other side. What do you do?

Now, if you had trouble solving these questions then you are likely trapped in the ordinary managerial mindset with its limitations and assumptions automatically built in to the problem solving process. And while such a mindset is great for breeding non-thinking conformists that abide to corporate dogma; this will not propel your organisation to leapfrog your competitors. You want your staff to think magical thoughts that can be developed into magical products and service. To a person in the 1950s, an 80s Walkman would have seemed like a magical, impossible device. To a person in the 80s, an iPhone 7 would have seemed a magic, impossible device. You need to free your own thinking from the belief systems endemic in modern business in order to think of tomorrow's magical devices so you can then start working on making them possible.

So while you may have had trouble solving those questions, almost all five year olds are able to answer them correctly. Why? Because they naturally have unlimited creative thinking not yet spoilt by the rigidity of common thought. Let's look at the answers, one by one.

• How do you put a giraffe into a fridge? Open the fridge, put the giraffe inside and close the fridge.

• How do you put an elephant into a fridge? Open the fridge, take the giraffe out, put the elephant in and close the fridge.

• What animal is not at the meeting for all the animals? The elephant…because it is in the fridge.

• And what do you do on the bank of the crocodile infested river? You swim across the river because all the crocodiles are at the meeting.

Clearly, sometimes a childlike, unbounded imagination is needed in order to escape your paradigm and think outside the box. This example shows how we automatically build in problem boundaries and make assumptions about limitations and it also shows how we jump to levels of complexity that blinds us to simple solutions. Nobody said the fridge wasn't big enough to fit the giraffe! This example also shows us that we should consider previous actions. Nobody said that these were four separate questions.

Now that we have forced upon the mind to broader possibilities, let me give you some questions that are directly related to your own business. In answering these, let your mind take a step or two back from normal reasoning so that you give yourself the lateral space to see both the fridge and the giraffe simultaneously. I'm about to ask you four questions for which I want you to write your answers. You might want to pause the podcast after each question so you give yourself the best chance or writing a creative answer. Ready?

1. Firstly, in respect to your industry, what are three different things that would cause its rapid decline? Write these down.

1. What three things can you do to survive such a decline if the industry were to collapse?

1. When people buy from you, what is the end outcome they are seeking to achieve through their purchase and what are three ways that outcome can affect their life?

1. Now, look at those three ways your customers' lives are affected and for each, list three new inventions that would achieve those same outcomes for them. Think laterally and without bounds. All things are possible.

The next step is to assess all that you have written down, but not now – do it in a couple of hours time; then again tomorrow after you have slept overnight. Don't worry about whether your business can accomplish them – instead, write down three different ways that each of them might be accomplished. Leave the door open to all possibilities, even if you think there is no way of doing it. The 'how' will come to you once you have worked out the 'what'. Your job as the leader of the business is to work out the 'what'; you will always find people who can work out the 'how'. This process of ideas branching off to other ideas follows the thought form of a spider diagram.

You should repeat this same exercise every month as it cannot but help generate relevant ideas and hypotheses of threats. But to make the most of this, have all your staff do this exercise – and I mean everybody. The objective of this exercise is to see the problem from as many different perspectives as possible, as each provides a unique vantage point and lifetime of creative insights, almost all of which you have no hope of reaching by yourself.

Perhaps the greatest creative thinking tool that I use is a specific type of spider diagram called the mind map. Mind mapping of course, is now very popular though Tony Buzan and the countless apps and programmes that are available. I use a programme called MindMaple on my Mac, which syncs with MindMaple on my iPhone and iPad. The software is excellent for making formal mind maps, but quite often I simply use pen and paper because it imparts a sense of freedom to me.

So in respect to thinking creatively in your business, you can give yourself an enormous advantage over your competitors by giving yourself the benefit of understanding the market, the world, the problem, the opportunity, the relationship, the war, the offensive and the defensive – all from the perspective of the other side. You should also try to imagine the perspective from a removed, third party that is not directly involved in the situation. When you gain these two extra perspectives, on top of your own; you achieve the advantage of seeing yourself and your strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of those your are trying to appear better than; and you also gain a clearer picture of what the buyer, who isn't invested in either your own or your competitors' perspectives, actually sees the market as.

So in thinking creativity, it is essential that we do not restrict ourselves to think in an ordinary, linear fashion. What we need is to be able to conceive of a very large fridge at the SAME time as how to reduce the size of the giraffe. The hardened picture of an ordinary fridge is so set in our mind that we instantly jump to the problem of the giraffe's size. This image of a normal sized fridge represents the rigidity of ordinary management thinking that prevents us from being as naturally creative as a five year old. But while we are all coaxed into the 'box' of common thinking, I truly believe it is possible for any person who wants to, to practise how to think more creatively. This is best achieved by adopting a thinking framework to become your new thinking process and then purposely applying that thinking framework in all problems that you solve – or opportunities you will to exploit. As I have mentioned, there are a number of well known frameworks such as the Six Thinking Hats, but I would like to discuss perhaps one of the most powerful – not only in terms of the incredible creativity that it can generate for commercial gain, but also in terms of the benefits across all the others areas of your life. I believe this to have the ability to transform your business/financial situation; as well as your health, relationships and ultimately, the happiness you experience in living. This framework represents the mind of the greatest genius and archetype polymath that ever lived…Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci. The Renaissance Man.

Leonardo Da Vinci is considered by most learned historians and scholars as the ultimate Universal Genius and possessed a 'feverishly inventive imagination'. Born in Florence in 1452 he created inventions and displayed intellectual and creative genius in all endeavours of human knowledge and his insatiable curiosity drove him to an obsession to learn…everything. In 1866 Hippolyte wrote of him, "There may not be in the world an example of another genius so universal, so incapable of fulfilment, so full of yearning for the infinite, so naturally refined, so far ahead of his own century and the following centuries". And as recently as 1967, Bortolon described him so, "Because of the multiplicity of interests that spurred him to pursue every field of knowledge ... Leonardo can be considered, quite rightly, to have been the universal genius par excellence, and with all the disquieting overtones inherent in that term. Man is as uncomfortable today, faced with a genius, as he was in the 16th century. Five centuries have passed, yet we still view Leonardo with awe."

Let's go back to that first test I gave you where you drew the Q on your forehead. Remember I said there is an enormous difference in people that make the tail of the Q point to left eye as opposed to the right eye? Well I promised you I'd direct you to the answer, so here's how to find it. This test comes from creativethinking.net, but to make it easy, I have already compiled the answer for you. Simply look at the show notes for this episode at www.thebusinessfirm.com.au (on the podcast page) and download the PDF for episode 105. The answer will freak you out!

So clearly, to adopt the very system of thinking that was used by the greatest mind ever, is to find an excellent guide to model one's own creative development upon. I was lucky enough to come across perhaps the work of arguable the greatest scholar of Leonardo Da Vinci, Michael Gelb, in 1998 when I saw his ground-breaking book, How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Everyday. What Michael Gelb did was study Leonardo's mind and thinking extensively – more so than probably any person in history ever has. He sought to understand in full the very thought process that made Leonardo such as extraordinary genius; and after years of research and peering into the mind of the Maestro, he wrote this book which changed mine and millions and millions of other people's lives, all round the world. He was able to distil Leonardo's thought process down into seven key principles; which when lived in concert can arm you with the same view of the world as Leonardo. It is an amazing, amazing system of thinking that is surprising easily to understand. By following those seven principles, you will find incredible creativity and with it, the power to transform your business and all other aspects of your life. Of course, Michael has rewritten many other books on the subject of creativity, in fact, 14 in total. Some of which include: Creativity on Demand: How To Ignite and Sustain The Fire of Genius; Innovate Like Edison: The Five Step System For Breakthrough Business Success; Discover Your Genius; Thinking for Change; 5 Keys to High Performance; Brain Power: Improve Your Mind As You Age; and Wine Drinking For Inspired Thinking. He is also a highly sought after keynote speaker, a presenter of corporate seminars and a coach and mentor. He consults to some of the world's largest companies, including Microsoft, IBM, KPMG, Nike, General Electric, Ernst and Young, Unilever, Roche, H&R Block, Xerox, the United States Army and the list continues. He has won numerous prestigious awards, including Brain Of The Year (1999) an honour bestowed by the Brain Trust Charity to very few, amongst which are Stephen Hawking and Edward De Bono. Without doubt, Michael Gelb is an extraordinary genius in his own right and perhaps one of the most qualified individuals from which you would want to learn creative thinking strategy. So…what are those seven, transformative Da Vincian principles?

Well, it is my very great pleasure to invite you to follow me into the lift as we ascend up to The Business Firm Presidential Lounge and there, awaiting us, is no other than the amazing, Michael Gelb.

Special Offer From Michael Gelb to Listeners of The Business Firm Podcast

For any organisation that hires Michael to give a keynote speech or corporate presentation to its employees, Michael will give his special educational presentation to a school, free of charge.

Contact: [email protected]

www.michaelgelb.com

Today's question comes from Andeep who manufacturers high quality timber stains in Chennai, India. His product is more expensive than most brands and while he currently sells in India, he's having difficulty competing with the cheaper brands in his domestic market, which is still in economic development. Andeep has just sent product into Indonesia as a first outbound test in Jakarta. He now wants to export to Australia and New Zealand and is seeking advice on what he should consider in making the leap into the Aussie market.

Well Andeep, thank you for your question mate. You are in the same situation of many manufacturers on the Subcontinent and also in China who have reached a limitation to growth, both in respect to sales volumes as well as profitability. So, you are not alone in your predicament and The Business Firm has helped a number of manufacturers enter Australia, which in every case I can happily report has enabled those businesses to increase revenue, but more importantly, to dramatically improve profitability. Of course, while Australian has a smaller population than India or Indonesia, the amount of income per capita here is much, much higher. Also, when you take into account the difference in the exchange rate between the Rupee and the Australian Dollar, the real amount you will earn per sale will be a great deal higher, while still incurring the very low cost of production in India against that higher revenue. Hence, if you can manage the transport and logistics aspect of exporting to Australia (which you might be able to minimise by shipping direct from the Indian port of Chennai to the Australian port of Darwin in the Northern Territory, which is actually a relatively short distance, if you use sea cargo), then you definitely have the opportunity to create a lucrative export programme for your business.

In Australia, all coatings (timber stains, house paints, direct-to-metal enamels and especially automotive two-pack paints) are very expensive. So there is likely plenty of room for you to play between your cost and the potential retail price. In fact, for pretty much everything you can think of, Australian retail prices are always significantly more expensive than any other country, including the U.S. and the U.K, even when adjusting for exchange rate and shipping. Australian simply dish out more money for stuff. This gives you the ability to make some strategic choices in respect the distribution, which quite frankly, is going to be the single most important marketing determinant of your commercial success – probably more so than promotion. The reason is that geographically, Australia is gigantic – an entire continent; and it is sparsely populated, except for the largest cities of: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Darwin and Hobart. The smaller cities such as Albury-Wodonga, Geelong, Mount Gambier, Cairns etc. are spread all over the continent and to service these areas can be expensive, but you are usually able to charge higher prices to compensate for the higher distribution costs – something that is naturally accepted by most people in these areas. Hence, how you organise distribution is crucial.

You really only have two practical options: to try and sell everything yourself; or install distributors to do this for you. If you want to make any meaningful volume of sales, you really need to put on distributors and consider any sales you make direct to the pubic off your website, as a bonus – not to mention that even for your online sales you will still need to have a warehouse facility somewhere in Australia that is able to physically ship the product to your buyer, anyway. So, look for distributors in every state and territory; both in the big capital cities and also in the regional centres. Don't offer any distributor sole distribution as your product doesn't warrant it (i.e. you are not selling Mercedes Benz cars), unless of course the opportunity to sell in Bunnings (the largest hardware chain in Australia) presents itself only as an exclusive deal; but to be honest, even such a deal is unlikely to be an exclusive one because almost all of the products Bunnings sell are also available at their biggest competitor chains, such as Mitre 10 and Solver.

So you want to ensure that you have distribution for public retail (in places such as Bunnings), as well as distribution specifically for the trade market. In Australia and New Zealand, most trade buyers buy from specialist trade supply companies, not from big, public-going chains like Bunnings. You will need to find these suppliers and begin making contact with them. The main benefit of using trade suppliers is that your product will benefit from expert sales representation, as opposed to the blank stares you get from the staff that usually works at the big, public-going chains. The other benefit of course is that the trade suppliers are usually owner-operated, so they are much, much more likely to actively push your brand to buyers, as opposed to your tins sitting silently amongst the plethora of other brands' tins that sit alongside yours on the shelf at the impersonal, largely self-serve chain stores. However, don't get me wrong, you need both of these so don't for a moment think of choosing just one of these channels over the other.

In respect to promotion, you should budget for some advertising to build brand awareness and try and position your brand in the minds of the market. Because you are not selling a product with broad-based demand, you should narrow you spend to only target your niche; buyers of stains, French polishers, woodwork businesses, furniture restoration businesses, builders of outdoor decks and gates, businesses that make bookshelves, cabinet makers, builders of kitchens, as well as trying to get in front of members of the public, but only at the point when they are likely to be considering timber stains, such as when they are doing DIY wood projects, or resurfacing an existing deck, or renovating a wooden gate etc. Obviously, reaching trade targets is easy because you can find them in business directories, but getting members of the public specifically at the time when they are considering purchasing stains is more difficult, this is where very targeted advertising options such as search, FaceBook, YouTube, good text and video on your own website etc. is crucially important.

Finally, in respect to price, I've already mentioned that when selling into Australia there is usually a large amount of 'fat' between your cost and the retail prices that are tolerated in Australia. Now, if you want to make good money over a long period, then share that margin with your distributors. Don't try and hog it all yourself, leave plenty for them so that they are highly incentivised to push your brand over all the other brands that already stock. Assuming your stain is good, if they can properly service their customers and make more money from your product at the same time, then they will carve out market share for you – but you have to look after them. And looking after them does not just mean in terms of price, you need to provide them with all the promotional tools they need to sell your product. Have the brochures ready for them. Have the TDS and PDS sheets ready for them as a download, in properly spelled Australian English! Also, have high quality videos on YouTube ready for your distributors so they can send their customers there for tips, technical information, application methods, FAQ and so forth. You need to help them, help you.

I hope this has helped you Andeep, as well as anybody else that manufacturers products and is interested in selling into Australia and New Zealand. I can tell you that these are some of the things we have done for our own clients that have entered the Australian market and all of these are necessary in order to be successful. There is obviously more to it, but as a minimum these are the basics you need to consider in your business. I strongly suggest finding a marketing consultant that is local in Australia who has had experience in B2B or trade distribution because their local knowledge will best ensure the work they do for you is best suited to the Australian context; in respect to labelling laws, HAZCHEM compliance (this has to do with storage and transport of flammable or dangerous goods across Australia, which of course, includes paints), and in respect to creating videos with Australian voices (which is a must, by the way), and in respect to the most appropriate way to approach the local suppliers and how best to represent your brand to them, and also the best way to structure the pricing offer so as to engage them properly to actively sell your brand…plus lots of other important considerations that are essential if you are going to be successful in the Australian market.

So, I wish you all the best Andeep. Go forth mate, and conquer Australia and New Zealand!

Listen to Episode 105 to hear all of Steven's advice to this question. You can listen to this and all other episodes:

This is the favourite part of the show for host Steven Cavallo because he gets to directly help real people with an actual problem they are having in the areas of business development, marketing, sales or fundraising. Steven features one of the recorded questions sent in by listeners, and plays back that recording on air, along with his commentary. To submit a question, please record your question as an mp3 (maximum file size 10Mb) that is no longer than 60 seconds and email it to: [email protected]

While we can address your issue and provide some valuable insight for questions featured; of course, we can only go into brief detail in the minutes available in the podcast, so we encourage listeners who want more formal advice (regardless of whether their question is featured) to outline their specific problem/opportunity and email it directly to [email protected] and you will get a reply within 24 hours.

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In this episode, Steven Mario Cavallo discusses the one most important thing that all business people, managers, athletes, Prime Ministers, mums, educators and students ask themselves, "how can I get more time to do the things I want to do?" How does one undertake the almost limitless number of fabulous opportunities that life presents, given the finite time and space we all live in? Clearly, when we choose there is an opportunity forgone, not just in the economic context, but in all the areas of our lives: our physical and mental health, our marriage, our friendships, our personal & spiritual development, the relationship we enjoy with our children, our connection with community, our preferred way of giving back, and the important objective of lifelong learning. These are universal struggles lived by every person in the world, irrespective of what country they live in, their ethnicity, gender, religion or the money they were born into…everyone wants to maximise their life in a way that is meaningful to them.

So today I will investigate just a couple of the many different approaches that exist, on making the most of one's time. This is an area of great interest to many people, as it is for me; so I will share my personal system for dealing with this inescapable human experiment we call 'time management', as it relates to life achievement. I hope to give you some useful insight and strategies that can make a positive contribution to your own work life and personal life.

Let's begin with the obvious – the human body. The late, great Dr Wayne Dyer told my wife and I on a number of occasions that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Given the inextricable relationship between thought and outcome, I believe this to be true. Therefore, by definition anything that you achieve comes about because your originating thoughts manifested into outcomes only because of the actions of yourself and others. Actions then are what turn thought energy into the form we can use in the real world. Actions need people and people are physical creatures with bodies to do the tangible work that originated in the mind. Building a great business, or an international movement, or creating change or inventing the next iPhone all requires a body to make happen. Hence, we are reliant on our bodies for everything.

And although this sounds obvious and maybe a little silly; for most of us whom may not be into sports or fitness or even fully aware of what constitutes the food we eat…there is a tendency to take for granted this incredible human machine and simply assume that it will serve us without fail, year after year as we work away at our businesses and watch it miraculously turn our thoughts into things. Usually, professional athletes, or dancers, or models actively contemplate their bodies and appreciate how directly it serves their goals. But even the most physically inactive philosopher or mathematician (or any other person that lives in their head) counts on their body to write, or teach or do experiments. So it goes without saying that human health: physical, emotional, social etc. is the first determinant of leading a productive life. If you don't have either the physical or mental energy to do something, you can produce nothing. To this end, remind yourself constantly that you must commit yourself to getting adequate sleep, some exercise, to eat nutritious food in the right quantities, to spend time with your spouse and children, to spend time with your mates and to read/watch quality content that expands your world view…as these are the big levers that will improve your life more than any other set of inputs. All of these will be discussed in this episode's amazing interview with Mr Anthony Mennillo, who is a scientist of the human body and a specialist on human performance and life achievement.

Other than the performance of our bodies, the other biggest factor of course is our thinking. Mental constitution has many aspects: the way we see ourselves, the way we see others, the way we see the world and how we think the world sees us. All of these parts are related and have the power to catapult us to greatness. Equally, any part of it could significantly reduce our ability to function. Consider a person who has 'it all sorted' and is in flow…they get things done, achieve what they want and in turn, self propagate happiness, which keeps them in flow. In this state, you are effective, efficient and more likely to be making money because your confidence and self-belief is growing as your positive thoughts produce the momentum for more positive thoughts. 01 if this balance is upset, the mind scrapes and decelerates and can get stuck in painful thoughts such as fear, depression, apprehension, anxiety and so forth. And in this state, we are at risk of failures across our business and personal lives. Thinking is everything and you must be as health conscious about what you put into your mind as you are about what you put into your body. If you worry about what a deep-fried chocolate bar might do to your body, then you should be equally guarded about automatically swallowing the near lethal dose of pathetic, self-serving rubbish the mass media shoves down your throat each day. Both are poison and neither will serve you – least of all to build a great business and to inspire and lead people.

So if thinking is key, our minds then are the hands that create the blueprint for all we have in our lives. Like a holographic projector, whatever thoughts you have, will become the objects you see in your physical reality. All great things in the world first originated as someone's thought. We live in a society where messages of negativity, pessimism, cynicism, narcissism, manipulation and sensationalism hit us all. Like a torrent of damage these messages wash through the minds of people in almost all advanced economies, exerting downward pressure on the level of consciousness and in so doing, homogenising how people think. Just ask yourself the question, "how much does the popular opinion as expressed by the media influence my attitudes toward certain issues?".

What is needed is independent thinking, the unspoilt exploration of ideas and the space for individuals to be creative. The greatest inventors, entrepreneurs and leaders in history had original ideas; and they were usually seen as non-conformers by many in their industry; but they often exhibited genius and incredible achievement because they did not allow themselves to become bogged down in the popular culture that others blindly followed into facelessness. What is the point I am making? As business people, leaders, decision makers and creators of new social and economic enterprises, we owe it to ourselves to protect our brains from ideas and beliefs that do not serve us. I am telling you directly, if you want to be uniquely great, both in your business and personal sphere: stop watching the news, stop watching most of the rubbish on commercial television, don't read tabloids, don't subscribe to mindless gossip feeds, keep to a minimum the time you spend on social media and most, most importantly…don't hang around negative people that whinge and bludge and sap your energy. These poisons will severely inhibit your full potential. In his excellent work Three Simple Steps, Trevor Blake talks about 'protecting your mentality' by staying away from mass media news, from ignorant gossipers and of wearing one's 'mentality shield' as an invisible force field that deflects negative or unfair criticism from detractors. He also talks about taking 'quiet time' every morning in order to soothe the mind into a quieter state where stress is emptied from your head and creative, ingenious ideas are able to take their place. This is incredibly powerful and can bring about profound performance improvements in your business, your health and your relationships.

So what has all of this to do with time management and personal achievement? Everything. Despite our attempts at being rational, we remain emotional beings. If your mind is consumed with deliberate and constructive optimism and a strong sense of purpose, and is not infested with external rubbish that distracts your focus and diverts your energy and attention; then you will suddenly find that you regain hours per day that you would have otherwise wasted on activities that actually detract from your business goals. We must all become better at recognising the activities that are truly important in realising our mission. It is these activities that you do first. In the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Dr Stephen Covey talks about prioritising the 'big rocks' of your life first. In a business context, this means having the discipline to sometimes say 'no' to the good stuff in order to do the best stuff. It also means having a clear strategy and doing forward planning that take into account different scenarios so that you are not bogged down constantly 'putting out fires'. The most effective instrument I have ever seen that one can use to determine what to do, as opposed to what not to do; is the Eisenhower Matrix – which in my opinion is the ultimate time management tool, without question. This is covered in depth by Stephen Covey (and other thought leaders) and its enormous power lies in its ability to differentiate between what is actually important – and what is just urgent. If you image two axes: the vertical indicating importance and the horizontal indicating urgency. The four quadrants that result from the axes crossing at the origin represent the four boxes in which you place tasks according to how they rate, in terms of both urgency and importance. For example, in the quadrant designated 'not important and urgent' you place things such as sending Christmas cards to suppliers before the cut off date for delivery. In the quadrant designated 'important and not urgent' you might put strategic planning or equipment maintenance. These are usually things that represent low risk if not done immediately, but high impact if not done at all. In the quadrant 'important and urgent' we see things that usually happen with barely any warning and that have a high impact. These are the 'fires' that need to be put out and whose priority overtakes all others, due to their critical nature. Finally, the quadrant 'not urgent and not important' – things such as Facebook and gossip; represent things that add no value to your business or your life. Clearly, the two quadrants you want to spend as little time in are the 'not urgent/not important' quadrant; and the 'urgent/important' quadrant. Time you spend doing tasks that belong in these boxes is either a total waste of time; or a sign of mismanagement. And while there will occasionally be some sort of 'fire' in your business; and some need to just 'veg out' for a few minutes watching a silly cat video on YouTube; these need to be kept at an absolute minimum if you want to be effective…not just efficient. There is no point looking for lost keys outside your house if you know you lost them inside somewhere. Doing the right things reasonably well is more profitable than doing the wrong things perfectly. So highly effective people are different to those that are merely efficient because they don't allow harmful external influences to detract from their vision, their belief or their time and energy.

So how do you use Covey's Four Quadrants (i.e. Eisenhower's Matrix) in your own business or personal life? In the good old days of leather Filofaxes (one of which I had surgically attached to my body!), I simply used a paper version that was pre-drawn onto which I wrote my tasks on a daily or weekly basis. This was incredibly good at helping me maintain direction and use my time effectively and probably made the single biggest difference in my awareness of 'how to work' properly. Today of course, software has now replaced my beautiful Filofax, but it allows for flexibility, reporting, attachments to be appended and most conveniently, the ability for unfinished tasks to automatically carry over into the next day without me needing to rewrite them onto the next sheet. In my personal set up I use a programme called Priority Matrix, made by a company called Appluence. You can see the software on their website: www.appfluence.com . For me, this is the very, very best implementation of the Eisenhower system I have seen and is the programme I use to organise my business. It is also how I prioritise my time in my other roles: as a father, a husband, philanthropist, teacher and speaker. I thoroughly recommend you use it. I have no affiliation or get any money from telling you this; my only reward is my confidence that it will help you be enormously productive. I have Priority Matrix on my Mac, my iPhone, my iPad as well as my Windows 10 machine and it is worth its weight in gold. Download the show notes from the podcast page at www.thebusinessfirm.com.au and this link will be there for you.

In respect to time management, my other tools of choice are things that automate manual tasks or that represent shortcuts to outcomes. Now, assuming you have worked out the right things you need to do to be effective, then there are various technological tools that do enable you to be efficient at being effective. I use all of these things: Siri, online booking systems, automated lead generation, writing content that can be repurposed for ten fold ROI, I use my previous work structure as guides for new work that is similar, I create eLearning modules that my staff refer to for operations manuals and help, I put shortcuts to templates I create so that people don't need to reinvent the wheel each time, I shift wherever possible, those tasks that customers could do themselves (such as filling out forms) to reduce admin burden and costs on my own company. I have created smart systems that track job progress and automatically update the customer with their estimated completion time. This reduces the number of inbound calls to my reception and keeps the client happy. I schedule things to happen in such as way so as to smooth demand on my resources. For example, I encourage pre orders of product and services that would normally follow a seasonal sales spike. I batch similar tasks or jobs so to minimise set up times and movement between different types of tasks.

I employ extensively, the best Lean methodologies in all my management workflow, floor space layout, production processes, materials location, JIT inventory & logistics and quality management so as to design the absolute most optimum work system that reduces cycle time, reduces costs and generates superb quality outputs. I have a digital dashboard that provides me at a glance, all the key metrics of my business, not just as they appear presently, but with graphics that clearly show trends over time. These are all things I use and have set up for clients and each have proven themselves to dramatically improve productivity. Lean is incredibly powerful. Along with the Quality movement, it was instrumental in the transformation of Japan from a devastated post war nation into a global economic super power. Lean seeks to eliminate wastes ('waste' does not refer to rubbish by unnecessarily expended time, materials, labour and energy) and increase customer value; thereby allowing a business to reduce costs, increase quality, build market share and make more profit. It can be transformative and a strongly suggest all business owners to engage a Lean consultant as that investment it will pay itself off. I will be presenting an entire episode on Lean soon as it is so, so important a management practise for business. Stay tuned for that episode.

I also use Skype for Business and FaceTime extensively to reduce the amount of time I need to drive around in traffic. When I'm in the car I get Siri to read me my emails, my text messages, to make appointments for me, to send SMS messages and to play audiobooks for me. I listen to high quality business related or personal productivity podcasts whenever I can: whether I'm in the car, exercising, cooking or in a waiting room. There are so many incredible podcasts that allow you to learn from incredible minds, such as the podcast Exponential Wisdom with Peter Diamandis; or the many BBC podcasts; or the inspiring Entrepreneur On Fire by John Lee Dumas and the excellent School of Greatness by Lewis Howes. All of these give you tips and shortcuts and can easily replace some of the rubbish on TV.

One other thing I do that helps my productivity, even though it does not seem directly related to business management, is that I keep a journal, where I reflect on my performance for the day and pay gratitude for what went well. This exercise in self-reflection is a great way to learn from mistakes and form good work habits because by analysing yourself retrospectively, you actually grow introspectively.

In Michael Gelb's ground-breaking book, "How To Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Everyday", he provides a framework of seven principles that will help you achieve a much greater capacity for creativity, for innovation and for being focussed. If you want to hear what those seven principles are, directly from Michael Gelb, then listen to episode 105 of this show where I interview Michael. He actually makes an incredibly generous offer to listeners of The Business Firm podcast where he will travel to anywhere in the world and present for free…with one condition! Listen to hear that offer and learn how Leonardo Da Vinci came to be the greatest of all geniuses in history.

The other area that business people should look at for improving productivity (both their own and that of their organisation) is in the structure of their business. The org chart itself and the arrangement of people, their chain of command, their span of control, the flatness of your structure, the amount of autonomy you give people, the amount of help tools and scope of decision making you allow your frontline staff to exercise, the instant availability of protocols and templates and step-by-step guides to solve problems dynamically…these are all things that will obviously affect how much of your personal time will be directly required to run the business. Of course, in re-engineering your entire work system to conform with Lean principles, to have a strong customer orientation, to become a learning organisation, to budget time and resources for innovation, to cultivate a culture of ownership by all employees that in turn motivates people to commit their own energy to solve issues rather than running to their bosses…all of these things will return commercial rewards, often substantial…and such a design can help take a great deal off of your plate, allowing you to use that time to do other new things in your business; or even to – dare I say it – take some time off and live the life of a business owner, not the life of a person that is owned by their business.

We now make our way to The Business Firm Presidential Lounge where we will hear from one of the leading scientists in the area of human movement and sports. He is a renowned anthropometrist and is Director of the foremost wellness centre in Australia that caters specifically for the needs of executives and busy people. His specialisation is in transforming lives of worn-out business people from being a stressful, overweight, slightly unhappy mess into a healthy, positive, thriving person will boundless energy. Follow me now up the lift into Success Tower, as we meet the incredibly inspiring, super-energetic, Anthony Mennillo.

www.betterthanever.com.au

Email Anthony Mennillo at: [email protected]

Additional Resources

Ehrenberg Bass Institute: https://www.marketingscience.info

Your Business' Ability to Achieve Game Changing Innovation: www.gamechanging.com

Priority Matrix, personal productivity software that utilises the Eisenhower Matrix as described by Dr Stephen Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: www.appfluence.com